The Ends of the Earth

Pamela Conrad, an astrobiologist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has traveled to the ends of the Earth to study life. On June 16, 2005, Conrad gave a lecture entitled, “A Bipolar Year: What We Can Learn About Looking for Life on Other Planets by Working in Cold Deserts.” In part 1 of this edited transcript, Conrad describes what sort of signs we could look for to see if there is life in an alien environment.